The present invention generally relates to plastic payment cards for copy machines, telephones, parking and passenger tickets, credit cards, electronic games, bank teller machines, social services payment card, hotel services payment card, laundry machines, vending, gambling machines and other application in which the user would like to know or should always know the balance of the value still available for use. Present cards use a magnetic stripe to record the balance of money after the purchase from the vending machine or after the last financial transaction. Some vending machines allow to read the balance prior to use. In many applications users find these cards inconvenient to use since there is no visual record on the card of the latest transaction or the current balance of the card.